Lead Scoring
Rank leads by how well they fit and how engaged they are, so sales talks to the best leads first.
Lead scoring ranks every lead on two things: how well they fit the people you serve best, and how much interest they're showing. Fit comes from details like role, company size, industry and location, and engagement comes from actions like visiting your pricing page, requesting a call, clicking emails or downloading something.
The points come from your own won and lost deals, not a generic template. Looking back at six to twelve months of deals shows which details and actions actually lead to customers. Negative points knock down leads who aren't a fit, like students, competitors or personal email addresses, and older activity counts for less over time.
When a lead crosses the threshold, a workflow updates their lifecycle stage, assigns an owner and lets sales know. A simple feedback field lets sales flag leads that weren't ready, which gives you what you need to adjust the points and the threshold every quarter.
Signs you need this
- Sales says most leads aren't a good fit
- You get more leads than sales can follow up with
- Good leads wait days while sales chases bad ones
- Nobody agrees on when a lead is ready for sales
- Leads get handed to sales before they've shown any real interest
End results
- A scoring model with fit points, engagement points, negative points and point decay
- A threshold for the qualified lead stage
- A score property in your CRM and a workflow that hands leads to sales when they cross the threshold
- A lead quality feedback field so sales can flag leads that weren't ready
- A monthly check on accepted leads and a quarterly review of points and threshold
Common questions
What's the difference between fit and engagement scoring?
Fit scoring looks at who someone is, like their role or company size. Engagement scoring looks at what they're doing, like visiting key pages or opening emails. Using both keeps you from sending sales a great-fit lead who isn't interested or an interested lead who isn't a fit.
How do I decide how many points each action gets?
Start with your won and lost deals and look for the details and actions that show up most often before someone becomes a customer. Give those the most points, then adjust based on what sales tells you.
What are negative points?
Points you subtract for signals that someone isn't a real prospect, like a student email, a competitor's domain or an unsubscribe. They keep obvious mismatches from reaching the threshold.
Do I need lead scoring if I don't get many leads?
Not always. If sales can personally review every lead, a simple manual review or an A, B or C rating can work just as well until volume grows.
How often should a scoring model be updated?
Review it every quarter against your recent won deals and sales feedback. Update it sooner if you add a new persona or offer.
